I looked out of our 7th floor Old Castle Hotel window this morning and a maid was out on a room balcony washing the floor. When finished, she picked up the bucket of water, looked carefully below to make sure no one was standing there and emptied the pail over the balcony…View image. Caught her [...]
“Travel Tips & Advice on Kham Area”
Sopo Watchtower Village, China
May 2nd, 2010 
Sheila Simkin 
Posted in China, Kham Area 
Tags: accommodation, adventure, china, culture, destination, event, food, history, hotels, log, Old Castle Hotel in Danba, sichuan, sightseeing, Sopo Watchtowers, transportation, travel 
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Rabbit for Lunch? Danba’s Gyarong Market in The Kham Area of China
May 1st, 2010 Sheila Simkin Lunch today in Danba involved a hysterical conversation between Mr. Wang and order taker, “Foo-yen” (the word for “Staff”), over what this little restaurant offered. Their specialities were heavy on rabbit, yak’s liver, tripe and other assorted delicicies that “me no like.” Consultations over, and decision made, lunch was – “foot mushrooms” in broth (these [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area Tags: accommodation, adventure, china, culture, Danba, destination, event, food, history, hotels, log, Old Castle Hotel in Danba, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
Jiaju (Gyarong) Typical Tibetan Village Outside of Danba, China
April 30th, 2010 Sheila Simkin Heavy rains last night caused landslides and kept us from visiting the Gyarong village, Chongio and Suopo…View image, originally scheduled on the itinerary and too dangerous to attempt. The only option would have been a very muddy two-hour walk in each direction up the mountain something that none of us relished. Instead, Mr. Wang drove [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area, Tibet Tags: accommodation, adventure, china, culture, destination, event, food, Gyarong people, history, hotels, Jiaju Tibertan Village, log, Old Castle Hotel in Danba, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel 1 Comment »
Ethnic Danba Village in The Kham Region of China
April 29th, 2010 Sheila Simkin Danba (pop: 30,000) is a small county in the mountain valley of the Kham Sichuan and the landscape varies from high-altitude snow-capped mountains to low-altitude grasslands. The population is primarily ethnic Gyarongs/Jiarong (“Jah-row”) Tibetans that wear completely different clothing from the Khampas we’d seen up to now. Danba is not “off the road least traveled” [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area Tags: accommodation, adventure, china, culture, destination, ethnic Gyarongs, ethnic people, event, food, history, hotels, Kham, log, Old Castle Hotel in Danba, sichuan, sightseeing, Tibetans, transportation, travel advice No Comments »
Ganze/Ganzi/Kandze to Danba in the Kham Region of China
April 28th, 2010 Sheila Simkin The different Chinese names for each town drove me crazy. I began to keep the itinerary with me at all times in the Land Cruiser. Today’s destination was Danba, also spelled “Temba” and then Dondup would pronounce the name of a town in Tibetan. Whatever it was called, Danba or Temba, we were staying for [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area, Tibet Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, destination, event, food, Ganze, hotels, log, monastery, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
From Derge (Dege) to The Important Monastery City of Ganzi, China
April 26th, 2010 Sheila Simkin Lunch today was interesting. There was a spicy beef with hot stones (be aware and don’t bite into the stones…you’ll break a tooth) in it to keep it hot and a vegetable dish with what appeared to be “Rice Krispie bars” floating in it. There’s a story about the Chinese version of Rice Krispie pieces. [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area, Tibet Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, Dege, Derge, destination, event, food, Golden Yak Hotel in Ganzi, hotels, log, monastery, river, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
A Prostrating Buddhist Monk and Other Road Sights on The Way to Ganzi, China
April 25th, 2010 Sheila Simkin Dumplings…View image… for breakfast, packed up. Before leaving the brand-new White Pagoda Hotel, the four of us stood while the hotel manager carefully checked that nothing had been damaged or stolen! Now in the Land cruiser and out through Dege/Derge on the same road we had entered. Back through the forests, canyons and valley for [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area, Tibet Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, destination, event, food, Ganze, hotels, log, monastery, monks, religious beliefs, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
Dege/Derge’s Bekong Scripture Printing Lamasery, Eastern Tibetan Plateau, China
April 24th, 2010 Sheila Simkin Lunch over, we sat around outside the 250 year old Bekong Scripture Printing Lamasery because it didn’t reopen until 2:30 p.m. The Printing House is located on the east bank of Jinsha (Sequ) River and was founded in 1729 in the Qing Dynasty. Construction took over 21 years on this four-story building. A visit to [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, Derge, destination, event, food, hotels, log, monastery, monks, printing, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
The Ancient Center of Tibetan Buddhism is Derge, China
April 23rd, 2010 Sheila Simkin Dege/Derge is the westernmost city in Sichuan before a mountain road leads to the vast Tibetan highland and was named after the Dege clan whose influence spread over present-day Sichuan, Tibet and Qinghai. It was one of the three ancient centers of Tibetan Buddhism culture, of great significance to the Khampas and one of the [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, Dege, Derge, destination, event, food, hotels, log, monastery, monks, printing lamasary, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel No Comments »
Xinlu/Xinluhai Lake and Over The Highest Pass to Dege/Derge, Eastern Tibetan Plateau
April 22nd, 2010 Sheila Simkin Early morning brought a visit to Xinlu/Xinluhai Holy Lake at the foot of Que’er (“Sheer”) Mountain before driving to Derge/Dege. Imodium and Cipro not only did the trick but managed to jam up the works for the next five days until I had to resort to the opposite “end” (forgive the pun) of the spectrum [...]
Posted in China, Kham Area, Tibet Tags: accommodation, adventure, buddhism, buddhist, china, culture, Dege, Derge, destination, eastern Tibetan Plateau, event, food, hotels, log, monastery, monks, sichuan, sightseeing, transportation, travel, Xinlu Lake No Comments »
